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Concerns from legislators and leaders

The primary concerns expressed by legislators and medical leadership have been related to safety. The opinion is typically that home birth is not safe, and regulating home birth attendants is feared to be construed as encouraging irresponsible, unsafe, risk-taking behavior.

In the section on research and safety the studies that demonstrate the safety of homebirth are reviewed for quality of research and outcomes.

There will always be religious, cultural, and philosophical reasons which obligate women to choose home birth, and the state has acknowledged the right of women to choose to give birth at home. With this right affirmed the state is now challenged to fulfill its duty of protecting the public by allowing families to differentiate between credentialed and uncredentialed providers.